Matt Taibbi: Ripping Off Young America: The College-Loan Scandal

[SheilaT]

4. I really wish that more college students and their parents

would understand what a bad idea it is to borrow tens of thousands of dollars for college. While education and learning for itself can be a very good thing, too many young people happily major in anthropology or 17th Century French poetry or some other genuinely interesting field which has no realistic job prospects for someone with that major.

Meanwhile, there are lots of courses that can be taken a a local junior college that will lead directly to a decent job. Unfortunately, as a nation we've been totally sold on the idea that everyone should and must go to college.

I know that the colleges are themselves hugely to blame in all of this, because they say to a prospective student, "Don't worry about the cost. You can get financing." Most of that financing is in loans, not in grants or scholarships. But the students and their families are responsible for paying attention to exactly what they are doing along the way.